Archive for the ‘Weight Watchers / Weight Loss’ Category

First, after 8 years, I’ve switched to a new web host company. It’s my first time manually transferring a site from one host to another, so there have been some growing pains. I think I have the main portions of my site at least working again – it’ll just take some time to do the minor tweaking. So there may be some changes in the works soon.

Second, there’s some exciting news in my personal life. My boyfriend and I have decided to move in together sometime in June. We’ve been together for almost three years, and he amazingly hasn’t gotten sick of me yet. We have our eyes and hearts set on a townhouse that we toured a few weeks ago. We’re wait-listed, however, and just need to wait for one to open up. It’s a pretty big step for me. I’ve never moved in with a boyfriend before. I’m pretty excited, however. Unfortunately, that means almost every weekend is taken up with going through storage boxes and doing a massive downsizing of personal property. Learning how to merge homes is going to be interesting.

On the weight loss front, I’m not actively focusing on tracking, but have been trying to keep my snacking to a minimum. Luckily, it seems to be working at the moment. I’m still losing or maintaining. Which, considering all that’s going on in my life I’m satisfied with. Down 36 pounds at this point!

Just popping in to wish you all a Happy Valentine’s Day! I’m currently doing laundry and am packing. My boyfriend and I are going on a short in-town hotel getaway from Sunday-Tuesday. Really looking forward to it. And we’re seeing Deadpool on Monday! Can’t wait. We could both definitely use some R&R via a couple of quiet days complete with movies and board games and no responsibilities.

I’m still tracking what I eat. A few days have been kinda rough, but I’m down about 3 more pounds. Which I will probably re-gain on our trip. 🙂 I did try on a pair of pants and a skirt that I haven’t worn in several years and they fit again. So that’s exciting.

I’ve mostly been using the ProTracker app. So far, I like it a bit better than the Ultimate Food Value Diary.

Anyway, hope you all are well and have a happy holiday. Doing anything fun?

I’ve been a member of Weight Watchers online since 2006. That’s when I buckled down on my lifetime struggle with my weight and ended up losing 164 pounds using their old Points system. This was even before their Points Plus program. I loved their plan and it was so easy to stick to. Their website was completely easy to use and had wonderful support on their many community message boards. The tracker was even easier to use.

Unfortunately, my doctor at the time was trying me on a variety of meds that made me start to gain some of the weight back and I lost some of my motivation. Then Weight Watchers switched to the Points Plus program and I didn’t lose quite as well. When I stuck to it, however, it worked – just much more slowly.

I can’t even say that I’ve been half-assing it the last five years or so. More like one-tenth-assing it. I gained back all but 25 pounds of the weight that I’d lost.

Thankfully, by doing things on my own and popping in to my WW account every once in a while, I’m back down 30 pounds of what I’d regained. Unfortunately, now Weight Watchers has decided to switch their plan and website.

I personally hate the changes. Their website is much harder to use and doesn’t have nearly the capabilities of the old site. You can’t even see your weight loss/gains in graph form any longer. It took me 20 minutes just to find the message boards. It took me even longer to find the help files. While it’s helpful to add products or foods to the database that WW themselves hadn’t added, their decision to make the foods people add available to other WWers has made the food database somewhat of a pain. There can now be three or more entries for one product, all with different points values.

As for the new plan itself, I applaud the idea behind them trying to move people in the direction of eating healthier, less-processed foods. However, the way they go about it makes it harder to follow and stick to. I was making much better choices on the old plan than I did before joining, but knowing that I could account for the occasional rough day or meal out made it seem so much less like a “diet” and more like something I could stick to. I could gradually transition into eating better foods at my own pace. Now, they’re making the decisions for us. Yes, I can still “treat” myself, but the points values of such items have gone up so much that it’s much harder to fit them into my lifestyle. I feel deprived. And honestly, when I feel like someone is telling me what to do, I rebel even harder. Let us go back to deciding for ourselves.

I can accept that watching your sugar intake is pretty important when you’re trying to eat healthier, however, again, their method is lacking in trying to shove us toward cutting these things out of our diets. Instead of encouraging the use of more natural sugars like honey, their plan pushes you towards sugar-free, fat-free products in order to not feel deprived. These things are filled with chemicals and are not the least bit healthy.

And so, sadly, it’s time for me to say goodbye to Weight Watchers. I cancelled my account today after almost ten years. If at some point in the future they decide to listen to all of the members who have complained and cancelled and adjust their plan, I will re-evaluate. They may one day win me back. In the meantime, I’ll be using My Fitness Pal or one of a couple of applications that use varying points plans that others have recommended to me. We’ll see how this goes. It may take me some time to figure out what works for me.

Have to say it will also be nice to be saving that additional $20 a month.

Anyone on the new plan and loving it? I know there are quite a few of you out there that do.

Things are still so-so for me. Struggling with my back some this week and yet another sinus infection. I think the hardest part of having to deal with my back issues is just the missing out on living. I have to be so careful as one wrong move can throw it out again. Sometimes, it’s just sitting wrong or bending wrong or standing wrong. And you never realize it was wrong until it’s too late.

I miss getting out and enjoying life. I miss going walking at the arboretum and going to museums and art galleries and socializing with friends as much as I used to. I hate missing out – both on the life experiences in general and the opportunities to connect with loved ones.

But I’m going to keep doing my physical therapy and keep trying to lose weight in the hopes that that will help some. I still had problems with my back at my lowest weight, but it wasn’t like this. Hopefully this hasn’t become just a chronic thing I have to live with forever. At least on this scale.

While I don’t believe in resolutions, I do believe in goals. Goals are good to have and to work for. They keep you moving and striving for something better. I have several for this year:

Continue working on losing weight. I’ve slipped the past couple of weeks. But while I haven’t been tracking meticulously, I’ve tried to stay conscious of what I’ve eaten and haven’t been overdoing it too horribly.

Continue working on making my back as healthy as it can be with my walking and physical therapy exercises.

Try to keep to a minimum the times that my back keeps me from doing things, if at all possible. I need to still get out and experience life. And I need to try harder to get time in with my friends, regardless of how my back is doing.

Continue focusing on building and renewing relationships with the people I care about. Spend more time with the people that make me feel good and less time with those who make me feel bad about myself.

Be as good of a girlfriend and partner to my boyfriend as I can be. I want him to know how much I love him and that he truly has someone on his side, someone’s got his back. I want him to know that he has someone he can lean on in good and bad times. Along with this, continue to nurture my relationship with his daughter. I want to be someone she can count on, as well.

And lastly, continue working on my finances and getting debt paid off. I have a plan, and have already implemented it, but it’s gotten sidelined the past couple of years by medical bills. So this year I signed up for an FSA to help recoup some of that money. My allergy shots alone will probably help me meet my deductible this year. I do need to look into other ways I can cut back.

It seems like a lot, but really, other than getting my debt paid off, they’re all long-term goals that aren’t rigid. They’re life-betterment processes. Or that’s how I see them. Baby steps to make my life more enriched and fulfilled and to help bring focus on things that are important to me.

It’s been a very long time since I’ve written on here. Very long indeed. I feel, however, that blogging is something I’d like to start again. I’m not promising daily posts, but I am promising an effort. I think my journaling form of blogging was good for me. As before, this blog won’t solely focus on weight loss. It’ll be whatever I feel I need or want to write about pertaining to my life.

2014 was a very rough year for me in most ways. I’ve struggled with a back issue for years, but it has been mostly manageable for the last decade. This year, it decided to be extremely trying. I’ve had visits to the hospital several times because of it. The first time resulted in an extremely frustrating overnight stay. The second go-round involved the nurses not even asking me what my pain was on the 10 point scale. “That looks like a 10 to me.” It also resulted in me being out on short-term for over a month from work. I’ve been through two rounds of physical therapy and multiple steroid trigger-point injections. I think these injections have helped the most. I believe I was able to ward off more ER visits with a third round of injections in November. They want to go in and burn/kill some of my nerves in my lower back next time, but I’m going to avoid that if at all possible.

I have degenerative disc issues, bulged discs (plural), and arthritis in my back.

Right now, I’m stable-ish. I have to take a pain pill most evenings along with doing my physical therapy exercises as often as I can throughout the day. I can’t take the pain medicine during the day because it makes me too groggy. On top of the back issues, the physical therapy has recently caused a second flare-up of tendinitis in my foot. Which, of course, makes it difficult to do my physical therapy exercises for my back. It’s a vicious cycle.

Factor in more than one sinus infection, beginning allergy injections, and a host of other fun things, it’s been a rough year health-wise.

On the plus side, I’m back on Weight Watchers and was down 21 pounds the last time I weighed in. Unfortunately, that was before Christmas and my scale has finally died after 8 years of faithful service so I’m not entirely sure where I am right now. I know I’ve slipped a bit in my diligence, but I’ve stayed somewhat aware of what is going into my mouth. Once I get a new scale, I can check in as to where I am.

As with my blogging, I’m not promising perfection this time around. Last time I was on weight watchers, I was very much a hermit and rarely went out. That’s quite different this time around. I’m allowing myself to be more flexible and to have more fun. It’s going slower, but I think I’ll be happier in the long run.

On the happy side of things, November marked a year and a half with my boyfriend and his four year old daughter. They have brought quite a bit of laughter and joy to my life. He’s such a great dad and is a very caring, affectionate man. She is such a loving, imaginative little girl. I love them both very much.

More to come in my next post; I just wanted to get the ball rolling. I hope 2014 was a good year for you and that 2015 is one of your best yet.

If any of you who used to check in are still around, please feel free to drop me a note in the comments. I’d love to hear from you and find out how you’re doing. Same goes for those of you who might be stopping by for the first time. Welcome!

Yesterday did not go so well on the eating front. I ate too much and I ate too many things I probably shouldn’t have. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a firm believer in the power of “everything in moderation.” I know that when I eliminate something completely from my diet or put something completely off-limits, it only makes me want it more and that is a recipe for disaster. But the word moderation is the key, and the word moderation was nowhere in my vocabulary yesterday.

But I did something different this time around. I actually tracked my insanity. I used a lot of my weekly flex points, but I’m still within them. I’ve also been tracking today.

I’m a little disappointed with myself, but I’m not going to let it tear me down.

I skidded on the tracks a bit yesterday, but unlike before, I haven’t given up. This time, I didn’t let it completely derail me.

This is just a quick post today. I’m not on track yet 100%. I am, however, making an effort. Especially the last couple of days. I’m starting to feel my motivation returning. It helps that several of my friends are also attempting to watch what they eat.

I say this as my stomach growls. 😀

I’m also going to make more of an effort to blog. I miss it. I just really haven’t had much to say lately, especially in regards to my eating. My emotions have also been on quite the roller coaster.

I’m still loving my car quite a bit. Have gotten several compliments on it, even from strangers, which is always fun.

Are any of you doing anything fun this weekend? I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing yet. There are a few things I’m contemplating. Buying new underwear may be one of them. 😛 Yes, I lead an entirely exciting life.

Guess what? My weight on the scale is actually down! It’s showing me as being down 6 lbs from my most recent highest. But officially, I’m only down 2.7. But I’ll take it! I’m excited to see what the scale says on Saturday. I was perfectly on plan Friday. Wasn’t perfectly on plan Saturday, but didn’t do TOO bad and did a lot of walking at the renaissance festival. Then was perfectly on plan yesterday and so far so good today! I’m going out tonight and I even have my planned drinking tracked in advance in my tracker. Go me! And go all of you for your fantastic support!

I’ve now been to Ren Fest twice this year. The first time, even though it ended up raining on us and becoming a muddy mess, was much more fun because there weren’t nearly as many people there. This time, the weather was gorgeous, but there were so many freaking people, it was hard to have too much fun. Felt like I was constantly bumping into people.

The first time around, I got my hair braided again like I did last year (but in a different style). This style was called The Athena:

On this second trip, I ended up getting my henna tattoo. This was it shortly after it was done:

So those were fun. I also bought a hand-crocheted snood!

Fun stuff. Or at least I think so. 🙂

In other unrelated news, my mom called me today at work to let me know that next week, the District Attorney’s office has set an appointment for us to come in and review all of the case materials from when my brother was killed. We will be able to read all statements, all reports, everything that the driver said, etc. They will also let us review photos, but am not sure we’ll go that far. Depends on if we think we can handle it. But it will be nice to hopefully have a better understanding of what exactly happened that night (or at least what they think happened that night). It’s so hard to believe that it will be 9 years in February. I still miss him tremendously. So hopefully, my supervisor will work with me on letting me have the time off.

I’ll keep you all posted. Hope your week has gotten off to a good start!

I’m almost scared to say anything for fear I will jinx myself, but I find myself with a new determination to get back on plan today. It may have something to do with the fact that I’ve been feeling sick to my stomach all day. LOL But I have been tracking all of my food today, and actually sat down and made a grocery list for when I go shopping tonight.

Do you have any idea how long it has been since I actually wrote out a grocery list? Especially one that didn’t have the word “cookies” written on it? 😀

So that’s my plan for right now. To tough this out for today. Then I’ll worry about tomorrow, tomorrow.

My goals for today:

Keep counting everything I eat

Drink lots of water

Get my grocery shopping done (with a minimum of treat buying – and swear that any treats I DO buy will be ones that I can calculate points for and count)

Feel better. Still feeling a bit like hell. I honestly think the stomach issues stem from the stress I’ve been under lately with my weight, work, etc.

So I think all of those are reasonable for today. The only one I don’t have a lot of control over is the feeling better part. So after grocery shopping, I’m just going to rest.

Also, I have been boycotting The Biggest Loser for the past several seasons, because it was ticking me off. The safety of the contestants seems like an afterthought and the trainers were making me mad with some of their comments. But my friend, Skye, asked if I’d seen any of the current season as the male trainer is rather good-looking (and oh yes he is!). I had finally gotten caught up on the last season of Supernatural (my parents bought it for my birthday which happened to be a couple of weeks ago) and had nothing better to do, so decided to give this season a chance. I’m still trying to make my way through the first episode. It honestly was ticking me off in the first five minutes. And Anna K. bugs me. But I’m going to at least watch the first two episodes and then I’ll decide if I want to continue.

But anyway, thank you all for the great comments you left on my last post. Several of them brought tears to my eyes from your kindness. I’m truly blessed to “know” you guys. Big hugs to you.

My eating is totally out of control. My emotions are totally out of control. My weight is getting totally out of control and I’m seeing numbers on the scale that make me cry. I feel like I’m in the bottomless pit of despair again that I can’t pull myself out of. Except I KNOW that I can…and that just makes me feel that much worse about myself.

I have GOT to get myself back on plan. I have GOT to. I can’t let this continue. I’m already feeling so low that I just can’t imagine how much worse it can get. If I’m not careful, I’m going to be at my starting weight again. I CANNOT LET THAT HAPPEN. I’m already reaching the point where I feel so bad about myself that I’m not wanting to do things and go out to certain places. I’m already getting out of breath from simple activities.

My latest struggles have proven to me even more strongly how much of a food addict I am. I look forward to meals – to when I can eat again. I crave it. Eating cheers me up. And oh the yumminess of all the things I shouldn’t be eating. The emotions I feel when I think about food are just ridiculous.

I want to be proud of myself again. I have loved ones that I want to be proud of me again. Though I know that I have to do this for myself and only I can do this.

Again.

God, just thinking about trudging down that slope again makes me tired.

But trudge I will. Starting right now. I’m going to do my very best. And I’m going to challenge myself to start writing on here again. I’m going to do my best to write every day…at least for a while…even if just about mundane, every day things. So we’ll see.

If any of you are still around and happen to read this, I appreciate your continued support. And I’m certainly going to need it. Thanks, guys. I miss you and hope you’re all doing well.